LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for E-Learning (2026)

Key Takeaways

In e-learning, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 28.4%. Replies to the connection note average 2.8%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 7.4%. Those numbers come from 110,003 connection requests sent by 98 e-learning accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. All three sit below the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%.

E-learning vs. the platform average

Metric	E-learning	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	28.4%	28.5%	-0.1 pts	15th of 38
Connection-note reply	2.8%	3.0%	-0.2 pts	16th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	7.4%	10.4%	-3.0 pts	37th of 38

Across the 38 industries with at least 50 sending accounts, acceptance runs from 21.8% (telecommunications) to 36.5% (staffing & recruiting). Note replies run from 1.8% to 6.6%, and message replies from 7.2% to 18.9%.

What the numbers say about e-learning outreach

E-learning senders get through the door at the platform rate and then lose the conversation. Message replies of 7.4% rank 37th of 38, three points under the 10.4% cross-industry average, and only media production turns fewer accepted connections into a reply. Acceptance and note replies both sit within 0.2 points of the platform, so nearly all of the sector’s shortfall arrives after the connection is accepted.

End to end that leaves about 2.1 replies per 100 recipients against a cross-industry 3.0, 37th of 38, level at one decimal with biotechnology and ahead only of media production. Because that figure multiplies acceptance by message replies, an e-learning account that kept its acceptance rate and reached the platform message reply rate would land at roughly the cross-industry result. On these numbers, nearly the whole gap sits in one step.

Its closest matches are computer software, insurance and management consulting, each of which accepts close to the platform and converses below it, though none as far below as e-learning. The more revealing comparison is with the other learning categories: professional training and coaching shares the weak follow-up at 8.6% message replies, 34th of 38, while higher education posts 11.6% and ranks 11th. On 98 accounts the exact rank deserves some caution, but a three-point gap on messages is wide for this dataset.

If your numbers sit below these

The dataset says where an account sits, not why. From what we see in campaigns, three gaps come up most often in this sector, and they point at different problems.

Message replies under 7.4%. The sector line is already 37th of 38, so a number below it is very low, and this is the measure carrying nearly all of e-learning’s shortfall. From what we see in campaigns, it usually means the first message after acceptance asks for a demo or a free trial before the recipient has a reason to want either.

Acceptance under 28.4%. The sector accepts at the platform rate, so there is no industry allowance to claim here. A number below it tends to point at the list rather than the copy, usually titles picked because they sound like buyers of courses instead of the people who own a learning budget.

Note replies under 2.8%. Close to the 3.0% platform figure and 16th of 38, so the note is not where this sector loses ground. A shortfall here is worth fixing only after the follow-up message is, because the end-to-end gap does not come from the note.

Further reading:

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• How many LinkedIn invites can you send a week?
• Personalising a LinkedIn message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula
• Tips for building a LinkedIn content strategy for B2B sales
• The best AI lead generation software to add to your stack

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn acceptance rate in e-learning?

28.4% is the sector average, 0.1 points below the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 15th of 38 reported industries. Above 30% is doing better than the sector. Acceptance is not where e-learning outreach falls short: the gap is in replies to the message after acceptance.

Why do e-learning senders get so few replies to LinkedIn messages?

The dataset shows the rate without establishing a cause: 7.4% message replies across 98 accounts and 110,003 requests, 37th of 38 and ahead only of media production. It does show the problem is specific to that step, because acceptance and note replies both sit within 0.2 points of the platform.

How does e-learning compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 15th of 38, note replies 16th and message replies 37th. End to end about 2.1 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, 37th of 38 against roughly 3.0 across all industries, with nearly all of the gap coming from the message after acceptance.

How this data was collected

E-learning is reported from 98 accounts and 110,003 connection requests sent between May 2025 and April 2026, drawn from the LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 dataset of 13.2 million requests across 13,302 accounts. That report carries the full methodology, along with the breakdowns by sender seniority, company size and month that are not repeated here.

Two things to hold in mind while reading any of these figures. The industry is the sender’s, taken from their company profile, not the recipient’s. And only industries with at least 50 sending accounts are reported at all: below that, a single unusual account moves the average by several points, which is why some of the most extreme numbers in the full appendix are not published here.

Related industry benchmarks

• Computer Software, 27.5% acceptance and 8.8% message replies
• Insurance, 28.1% acceptance and 8.8% message replies
• Management Consulting, 28.0% acceptance and 9.2% message replies
• All industry benchmarks

Grade your own outreach against these numbers

Enter your own acceptance and reply rates and grade your outreach against the e-learning benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

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Data updated 19 August 2026. Refreshed quarterly against the source report.